Wolters Kluwer Health may email you for journal alerts and information, but is committed
to maintaining your privacy and will not share your personal information without
your express consent. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Author Information

Abstract

Here's how to create a list of your personal and professional goals, growth, and achievements.

IN NURSING, the professional portfolio provides a record of your professional development where you can list personal and professional goals, growth, and achievements. It's quickly becoming a primary tool for demonstrating and improving nurse competence. A professional portfolio includes a number of core components.

▪ Educational background: List the educational program coursework you've completed and the degrees you've earned, including the institution name, dates attended, and areas of study.

▪ Certification: Enumerate the number of certifications you've achieved, taking care to provide the name of the certification, certifying organization, certification date, and certification renewal date.

▪ Employment history: Describe your work history in a manner that offers an overview of your nursing knowledge, skills, and capabilities. Your goal in this section is to describe the full depth and breadth of your journey from novice to expert nurse.

▪ Résumé: Develop a résumé of at least one page, making sure you don't exceed two pages. Identify work and educational experience along with certifications, beginning with the most recent in each category.

▪ Competency record: Make copies of your annual competency record checklist. Highlight new competencies acquired within the last year.

▪ Personal and professional goals: Copies of annual personal and professional goals along with evaluation of goal accomplishment should be included. Create at least five professional development goals annually and evaluate them at the end of the year. Reviewing these forms lets you reflect on your professional growth throughout your career.

▪ Professional development: List obvious professional development experiences, such as the title and attendance date for mandatory training and staff development programs. Also include continuing-education certificates for agency, regional, state, or local programs. Other professional development strategies that aren't quite as obvious include listing personal educational reading. Make a list of nursing and nonnursing articles and books you read for your own growth and self-development. Although you shouldn't include your summer beach reads, books on leadership development and other areas of personal improvement are important to list. If you completed computer software self-learning programs, add those as well.

▪ Presentations, consultations, and publications: Identify original presentations you developed individually or with others. Include consultations you might have provided with other units in your hospital or different health care organizations. For publications, include copies of the original article in addition to a copy of the newsletter or journal.

▪ Professional activities: Document your participation in professional organizations and activities. Identify committees you serve on and the role you fill, such as member, co-chair, or chair.

▪ Community activities: Include the name of the community organization, committee, or program on which you serve. Remember that the roles you perform with community groups can also demonstrate additional skills and areas of expertise.

▪ Honors and awards: Identify and include all honors and awards you've received.

Enter and submit the email address you registered with. An email with instructions to reset your password will be sent to that address.

Email:

Password Sent

Link to reset your password has been sent to specified email address.

Remember me

What does "Remember me" mean?
By checking this box, you'll stay logged in until you logout. You'll get easier access to your articles, collections,
media, and all your other content, even if you close your browser or shut down your
computer.

To protect your most sensitive data and activities (like changing your password),
we'll ask you to re-enter your password when you access these services.

What if I'm on a computer that I share with others?
If you're using a public computer or you share this computer with others, we recommend
that you uncheck the "Remember me" box.